Bernd Eisenfeld

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Bernd Eisenfeld (born January 9, 1941 in Falkenstein / Vogtl. , † June 12, 2010 in Berlin ), pseudonym Fred Werner , was a German historian and GDR oppositionist .

Life

Bernd Eisenfeld was born in 1941 with his twin brother Peter in Falkenstein in Vogtland . He also had two older brothers and a younger sister, the soprano Brigitte Eisenfeld . His father, who worked as a court clerk, was interned as an NSDAP member after his release from American captivity in the Soviet Zone in the Soviet special camp No. 1 Mühlberg , from which he returned as an invalid in 1949 after two and a half years . At the age of fifteen, the good chess player Eisenfeld had his first negative experiences with the GDR system when he was banned from participating in a tournament in Erlangen . Eisenfeld himself later described this experience as the beginning of his "immunization process [it] against the party". In addition, the official SED propaganda contradicted his own childhood experiences with American soldiers and his impressions during a visit by his godmother in West Berlin. Since he was denied the Abitur as well as a program for new teachers, Eisenfeld first learned the profession of banker after finishing school from 1955 to 1958. From 1959 to 1961, he studied finance at the technical college for finance in Gotha via a second educational path . From 1962 he worked at the German Central Bank in Karl-Marx-Stadt and in the industrial bank branch Elektrochemie Schkopau . In his free time he devoted himself to studying philosophy . Eisenfeld was convinced that socialism also included the preservation of civil liberties, and therefore rejected the actually existing socialism in the GDR because of its unfree character. Due to numerous letters of protest to domestic and foreign authorities, written from 1964 onwards, in which he spoke out against the Wall, the division of Germany and democratic deficits in the GDR, in 1965 he was not allowed to study philosophy and cultural studies at the University of Halle despite a successful aptitude test authorized. An application made in 1966 to study art studies at the University of Leipzig also failed for political reasons.

Conscientious objection

In 1966, Eisenfeld refused military service with armed forces, not out of religious or pacifist considerations, but because he did not want to take an oath on the state and party . As a so-called construction soldier , he came into contact with other members of the opposition. Together with them he refused the pledge of the construction soldiers. When this was nevertheless noted in the documents as having been done, Eisenfeld lodged a protest with the Minister of Defense. The Ministry for State Security (MfS) opened the operational procedure (OV) "Decomposition" against him and three other construction soldiers. Before that, they had written several individual and collective petitions, calling for real alternative military service without being used on military objects. Bernd Eisenfeld had also unsuccessfully applied for clemency after a comrade was sentenced. After his service, he was dismissed from the state bank and banned from public service. Again he applied unsuccessfully to study. Therefore, from January 1, 1968, he worked again as a financial economist in the chemical engineering department in Leipzig and from then on organized meetings for construction workers under the roof of the church.

Arrested for supporting the Prague Spring

After condemning the political persecution of Robert Havemann at a discussion event in Halle (Saale) in March 1968 , criticizing the draft constitution of 1968 , openly speaking out in favor of freedom of information and democracy , referring to the reform communist movement of Alexander Dubček in the ČSSR , he headed the state security the operational case "economist" against him and planned the arrest of Eisenfeld and his brothers Ulrich and Peter. In May 1968, Bernd Eisenfeld traveled with both of them to Prague for three days without the knowledge of the Stasi . In numerous, never published letters to the editor in GDR newspapers, he defended the “Prague Spring” against media attacks. Criticizing the violent crackdown by the Warsaw Pact troops , he wrote a solidarity telegram on 23 August with the content “Stand firm - keep hope” to the Czechoslovak embassy .

In mid-September he typed around 180 critical leaflets, which he distributed on September 20, 1968 on the Theaterplatz in Halle. On this he quoted Lenin's “ Decree on Peace ” and headed it “Please think! please, don't be silent !! ”When he wanted to distribute more leaflets in the cinema the next day, he was arrested and taken to the MfS remand prison“ Roter Ochse ”in Halle. As his Stasi files later revealed, the arrest was planned days before the leaflet campaign. His wife was very pregnant at the time. Only after three months was he granted contact with a lawyer. In February 1969 the Halle District Court sentenced him to two and a half years imprisonment for " subversive agitation " in the severe category. He went through the prison Berlin-Rummelsburg , Karl-Marx-Stadt , Cottbus and the "Yellow Misery" Bautzen I . Since Eisenfeld refused to withdraw his remarks, he had to serve the full sentence. During his detention, he was also monitored by the Stasi using the cell IM "Morles" ; He declined an offer of perks for writing reports on fellow inmates. For a time he was the only political prisoner in a cell with five criminals. His partner, who was solely responsible for looking after the four-year-old daughter and the son born during his imprisonment, was offered a pension if she separated from him, which she refused even after considerable pressure from the MfS. As a result, she lost her job as a secretary. After his release on March 18, 1971, Eisenfeld returned to his old job in the chemical engineering department in Leipzig. Since he was still involved in the Halle Peace Circle and in the building soldiers' movement, the MfS worked on him with the operational identity check (from 1974 operational process) "Bank". With reference to the CSCE Final Act, Eisenfeld renewed his application to leave the Federal Republic of Germany twice a year. In 1972 he sent documentation of his case to the United Nations .

Life in the west

After several rejected exit applications , Eisenfeld and his family were able to leave the GDR for West Berlin in August 1975 ; his twin brother had to stay behind. When he arrived in West Berlin, Bernd Eisenfeld and his family lived in a room in the Marienfelde emergency room for six months . Since the MfS had spread the rumor that he was in West Berlin on their behalf, he couldn't find a permanent job for years and got by with odd jobs. Initially as a freelance author under the pseudonym "Fred Werner", he wrote numerous works on conscientious objection in the GDR. As chairman of the Association of Former GDR Citizens in West Berlin, he helped former politically persecuted people from the GDR who had come to the West - mostly through the release of prisoners . From 1985 he worked at the All-German Institute . Until 1989, Eisenfeld continued to be processed by the MfS in the operational processes "ore" (against his brother Peter) and "polyp" (against himself) and subjected to decomposition measures. There were also plans to arrest him again on the occasion of his nephew's confirmation during a visit to the GDR .

With the dissolution of the All-German Institute, Eisenfeld moved to the Federal Agency for Civic Education in Bonn , before he got a job at the Gauck Authority (BStU) in Berlin in 1992 . Since 2000 he was head of the research department and was responsible, among other things, for an investigation into the suspected use of X-rays by the MfS against opposition members. In 2001, Eisenfeld signed an open letter from the Berlin Citizens' Office calling for the party of democratic socialism not to be elected.

Bernd Eisenfeld died unexpectedly on June 12, 2010, leaving behind his wife and children.

Works

literature

Movie

  • The Eisenfelds , documentary by Michael Trabitzsch, 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Weißbach: Bernd Eisenfeld , p. 157.
  2. ↑ Quotation from Weißbach: Bernd Eisenfeld , p. 157.
  3. ↑ a b c Cf. Matthias Schumacher: "I have remained true to myself" . In: Claudia Schulte (Ed.): Schicksal Bautzen - Political prisoners of the Soviet occupation zone / GDR tell - portray young journalists , St. Augustin 1999, pp. 51–55, here p. 52.
  4. ↑ a b c Cf. Bernd Eisenfeld in conversation with Doris Liebermann, in: Glossen 27.
  5. ↑ a b See Ehrhart Neubert : History of the Opposition in the GDR 1949–1989 , Berlin 1997, p. 193.
  6. ↑ a b Cf. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk: A leaflet and the consequences ( memento of the original from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 5, 2011.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  7. ↑ Quotation from Der Tagesspiegel of November 4, 2010: Obituary for Bernd Eisenfeld , viewed on July 5, 2011.
  8. ↑ The information on the number of leaflets varies. The number given here comes from loss for the processing of the SED dictatorship - obituary for Bernd Eisenfeld . In: UOKG (Ed.): Der Stacheldraht 5/2010.
  9. ↑ Quoted from Weißbach: Bernd Eisenfeld. S. 160. A scan of the leaflet prepared by Bernd Eisenfeld (link invalid) can be found on the Internet pages of the Robert Havemann Society .
  10. ↑ a b Cf. Der Tagesspiegel from November 4, 2010: Obituary for Bernd Eisenfeld , viewed on July 5, 2011.
  11. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi specifically: surveillance and repression in the GDR . CH Beck, 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-63839-8 ( google.de [accessed on January 22, 2017]).
  12. ↑ The report, which was created with the collaboration of Thomas Auerbach , Gudrun Weber and Sebastian Pflugbeil , was published in 2000 under the title "Use of X-rays and radioactive substances by the MfS against oppositionists - fiction or reality?" A brief presentation of the results can be found in the BStU press release of March 17, 2000 .
  13. ↑ See press release of the Citizens' Office of October 9, 2001 ( Memento of October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 88 kB)
  14. ↑ See Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial Foundation: GDR oppositionist Bernd Eisenfeld died ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . (Invalid link)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stiftung-hsh.de
personal data
SURNAME Eisenfeld, Bernd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werner, Fred (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and GDR opposition activist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Falkenstein / Vogtl.
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 2010
Place of death Berlin